New City stabbing victim, 7, lay bleeding for hours

Child, stabbed by mom, faces 'long road ahead'

Mar. 4, 2013

Victoria Vovchik / Contributed photo

Written by

Steve Lieberman and Hema Easley

NEW CITY — The 7-year-old girl who survived a vicious stabbing attack by her mother spent several hours bleeding inside her parents’ bedroom as her mother lay dead nearby after slashing her own throat with a kitchen knife, Clarkstown police said Monday.

Ava Sangavaram remained in stable condition Monday at the Westchester Medical Center after undergoing surgery for multiple stab wounds and a slash across her throat.

The child and her mother, Victoria Vovchik, 45, were found Thursday afternoon inside the Quarry Road house by the father, Dr. Kristappa Sangavaram of New Jersey. He went to the house after being told by his daughter’s elementary school that she was absent and no parent called her in sick.

Sangavaram called 911 at 1:09 p.m. Thursday, police said.

“We believe she was inside the bedroom at least a couple of hours before she was found,” Detective Lt. Charles Delo said of the child. “I believe she was sitting on the bed. She is lucky, in one sense, to be alive. I think she has a long road ahead of her.”

Delo said officers spoke to Ava and she provided them with information before she was taken to the hospital. Delo said he would not discuss what she told investigators or what questions they still wanted to ask her.

“We won’t be able to speak to her for at least another week,” Delo said. “She told us a couple of things. We have some questions that need answers. She’s going to be in the hospital for a while.”

Ava didn’t suffer any vital damage to organs, and one stab wound “missed her heart by a millimeter,” said Sangavaram’s longtime lawyer, Barry Cocoziello.

Ava initially was placed in a medically induced coma, said the lawyer, who received the update from Sangavaram and one of the doctor’s co-workers.

“It’s a miracle, it really is,” he said.

The Rockland County Medical Examiner’s Office found Vovchik committed suicide by slashing herself across the neck.

Ava’s 68-year-old father told The Journal News on Monday that he wanted the media to respect his daughter’s privacy.

“Please afford us privacy,” Sangavaram said Monday. “(Ava) is running around and she is fine. Her mother is dead. Give her the privacy.”

Although Sangavaram and Vovchik were not married, they acted at times like a couple with a child in Rockland, attending school events with their daughter, friends have said. He also lived in Englewood, N.J.

Sangavaram and Vovchik co-owned the house at 6 Quarry Drive, putting down $300,000 in 2010 on the $810,000 house.

His wife of several decades died last year. They had children together, including a 29-year-old son who told The Journal News that his father maintained a relationship with Vovchik for the girl’s sake.

As far as people speculating on his relationship with Vovchik, Sangavaram said, “I’m not worrying about anything. I don’t care what they say. Do you think we care about them? They can’t even polish my shoes.”

Vovchik, a podiatrist who had offices in New Jersey, made several phone calls and sent text messages indicating she wanted to harm herself not long before she followed through Thursday, Delo confirmed.

“But there was a history of that, going back a few years, according to her family,” Delo said.

The incident mirrored an act by Vovchik’s sister, who killed her 5-year-old son before taking her own life in June 1995 in Henryetta, Okla. Ellen Dorso, 31, shot her son, Alex, then turned the revolver on herself, The Associated Press reported at the time.

Dorso was divorced and may have been upset about financial problems.

Delo said investigators learned of the sister’s murder-suicide from relatives. Despite the eerie similarities, Delo said the sister’s actions have no bearing on the investigation “other than that it shows a history in the family.”

Vovchik’s former landlady, Carol Huggins, described her as a devoted mother who was convinced Sangavaram would marry her someday.

Huggins never saw Sangavaram but said Vovchik was deeply in love with him.

“She was obsessed, and he was just leading her on and on. ... I was concerned for her,” Huggins said. “She was totally in love, she was hoping that he would eventually be with her.”

Allison Solin of White Plains, a longtime friend of Vovchik’s, recalled that Vovchik told her about her sister’s murder-suicide shortly after it happened.

“She was very upset because she and (her sister) were very close,” Solin said. “She was saying that she wished Ellen had talked to her.”